Justin Pearce
THE Western Cape education department made a dramatic=20 about-face this week to concur with the National=20 Education Crisis Committee over the utilisation of=20 unused former school buildings.
The department has recognised schools created when the=20 NECC arranged for students to occupy unused classrooms=20 in District Six in defiance of official policy.
After a meeting on Tuesday, the department and the NECC=20 set up a joint technical committee to address the=20 problem of the thousands of Western Cape pupils who are=20 still not in schools. The agreement is in marked=20 contrast to the situation at the beginning of the year,=20 when the department and the NECC regarded each other=20 with mutual suspicion and pursued mutually exclusive=20 plans to enrol pupils in school.
Originally the department insisted that pupils who have=20 not found places must be accommodated in existing=20 schools which have less than their quota of pupils. The=20 NECC opposed this, on the grounds that most of the=20 children who need places are Xhosa-speaking, while the=20 available places are in former House of Representatives=20 (coloured) and Cape Education Department (white)=20 schools which offer only English and Afrikaans. Black=20 high-school entrants would have gone through primary=20 school learning Xhosa and English.
With the department refusing to shift, the NECC=20 arranged a group of students to occupy a disused=20 building in District Six. One result of this week’s=20 meeting is that the department has recognised the=20 existence of this school, Intlanganiso High School.
The department has also agreed to secure the use of a=20 former school in Epping which is now in the hands of=20 the Public Works Department, and to merge two under- utilised schools in Maitland to make available one set=20 of buildings for a new school.